Yeah, I was curious about the dragonfly thing as well, don't remember reading anything about that thus far. I'm with you, I'm definitely curious to see what will be coming down the pike as far as the basic assortment. Also, although they sound neat in theory, I have some reservations about the "quick change" Palpatine, and snap-armor Vader. They could be alright, but they could end up being craptastic. Hopefully the Swami will have another report up soon.

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SilverZ

I'm horrified by the sounds of the deluxe figures that hinge on gimmicky play mechanics. I'll be shocked to see something like snap-on Vader armor being done well. I imagine something similar to the Clone on Speederbike. Bleck.

Spider Droid with bigger gun - I also can't believe they're shoving a rehash into the line right away as well. That's a new low. Even for Hasbro.

Quote

ARC Troop Fighter (Guess ARC Troopers are in ROTS?)

If I remember my spoiler history right, they pilfered the ARC name just for the ship, and there aren't actual ARC Troopers in the movie.

For the initial release, I am planning on bringing at least $500 with me. I want to get most, if not all, the basic figures. If the Yoda on Dragonfly is real, I will definately be picking that up the first day too. I'm not too crazy on vehicles, so I probably won't be buying any of those. As for deluxe figures, i'm very picky when it comes to them. I may only pick up a few. The "snap on armor" Darth Vader sounds bad, in my opinion. I can just see this being another SAGA C-3PO with snap on armor, which was probably the worst figure in that line, just before Anakin Skywalker-Outland Peasant Disguise.

I saw there was a post on the SSG forums from member Jaff, who is a toy department manager (or something along those lines) with Wal-Mart. His post two days ago contained this info, regarding the future of the OTC line, as well as the ROTS preview figures and upcoming line. Interesting info I thought:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Do I have a post for you folks Today!

First off I was wondering why after 4 weeks of ordering that I had not gotten one single case of SW figures. I was seriously annoyed that nothing new has been coming into my store. So I called our buyer and he was stumped, so he sent me to the actual Hasbro rep. I used this phone number gratefully and asked her what has happened with my new stuff. Here's what she said:

The OTC cases are now out in the warehouses, and we are not going to produce any more. Since Hasbro has raised the prices on their cases a new toy mod will be down in December. 58,000 cases have shipped from the orient this week to Wal-Mart stores, and these cases represent the Episode I post OTC wave. The OTC wave is cancelled. You read that last sentance right. I also wanted to know from the horse's mouth if the VOTC line is cancelled next month. She said YES. I asked her what were we going to get new until episode III. She said there is another case (Filterpern) that will ship in December/January, and on 2/1/05 the Episode III preview figures will hit the shelves. She did give me the exact date. She said that the preview figures will be the last case until the release of the Episode III figures were released. She told me when they would be released too.

The release date for the Episode III figs will be 4/2/05!

Start counting the days! This date is final, and I assure you authentic.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SilverZ

58,000 cases of Post-OTC 1 heading to Walmart? According to Walmart, they operate a combined 3033 Walmarts/Supercenters in the US... that's 19-odd cases per store. That doesn't sound right. So I'll take his post (or the reps information) with a grain of salt.

If true though, its going to be pretty quiet until the ROTS figures hit, and I'll bet we'll be in pegwarmer city with the preview wave, great figs or not. Sounds like they'll have a window of months on the shelves alone.

He's been posting at Rebelscum too, and what I find odd is that "production" ceased LONG ago... On OTC and VOTC.

He keeps throwing the term"Production" around, and how it stopped, which to me says he doesn't know what he's talking about. Point, blank, period.

It isn't like there's just factories over the pond churning these out continuously. Toys are made in batches, and reorders of product are placed should they be deemed necessary.

In the case of OTC, things have been "limited" to an extent for the duration of the line, and the OTC line itself was made as a filler line for the DVD release... Production was started at one point, and ceased so that product would ship for the orders that were requested from retail. Simple.

Orders for OTC AFTER the fact would be moot, and the buyer would be told (Should be told he's an idiot for not knowing his product) "The production of that line's done, we have new cases available to you in this time of year, order them, they're transition figures into E3 stuff". In maybe loose terms there...

VOTC, again, was something with a set run for production. Retail gave its opinion on what was offered, Hasbro put in an order for a set ammount, and Hasbro (quite plainly) made it clear that when it's done, it's done. No more VOTC will be made/shipped after that point because they're getting ready for E3.

This guy posting this news, and talking about it at Scum and things, seems more intent on starting a mass panic that "OTC and VOTC are Cancelled! Buy them while you can!", rather than saying that this was the reality of the OTC line and most every other line Hasbro has made.

Yes OTC and VOTC are "done". Did everyone think they'd last into ROTS product or something? There's not much time between now and then... There's lotsa stuff in the pipelines for stores, things are just now going out to the retailers for X-Mas, and it'll include the transition figures come December and into next year.

Maybe I'm just missing the guy's point... But "production" stopped on OTC and VOTC a long time ago... It's not news, and not surprising, and it's not like there's going to be a surprise shortage of figures really. Some seemingly are getting shafted on production, but how many basic OTC figures really shipped heavily at all? Not many except NEW figures that Hasbro thought would sell the best.

It's really just confusing "panic" I'm seeing right now... It's a shame people start these rumors because now Rebelscum's all aflutter with the people thinking they're now not going to ever find VOTC figures because they're being short-produced somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if there's the exact same # of ROTJ VOTC figures as there are ANH, they're just being distributed differently. That's me though... Either way, Production stopped LONG before this guy "figured it out", and then subsequently, "broke the news" as it were.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to think of the news either, just thought I'd post it here. I don't really post at either Scum or SSG, but visit their forums every so often just to see what conversations might be going on. I don't know how reliable this person is, just that he works at Wal-Mart. I think Jesse is right on though, it probably isn't a real shocker that these toys have stopped production...that probably happened awhile ago already...they are just now in the pipelines and making their way to stores. I'm sure they have moved onto starting (or into) production on ROTS stuff by now, although I'm certainly not very knowledgeable on things like that. Either way, might be a bit of a gap of "new stuff" until the preview wave, which I guess is ok with me in a way, so I can save up for the ROTS onslaught. Plus, judging from the pegs around here anyways, OTC is starting to sit pretty heavily now, so I don't think we'll be looking at bare pegs anytime soon either.

I'll be heading to Target April 5. I made the mistake of going to a Wal Mart for AOTC and they had a limit of 2 Star Wars items per person. My fellow collectors and I were very disappointed. They did not have every assortment, either. I chose the Count Dooku and the Hanger Duel Anakin, which turned out to be the right choices because I didn't see those figures for a long time afterwards. I also went to 2 Targets and a TRU that day. I ended up with all the figures I wanted. I didn't pick up everything because of the goofy poses and action features. I left turds like the snap on 3PO, Outlander Ani and the Amidala on the pegs.

Right now looks like I'll be spending a ton on Midnight Madness. Not so much because we've got a lot of new toys, but because of armybuilders. I could use a force of about 30 SA Clones from III I'd imagine...

Right now looks like I'll be spending a ton on Midnight Madness. Not so much because we've got a lot of new toys, but because of armybuilders. I could use a force of about 30 SA Clones from III I'd imagine...